Marijuana reform advocates want Vice President Kamala Harris to apologize for jailing people for marijuana use and possession, even as she tries to rehabilitate her image as a compassionate reformer.
Harris held a roundtable with reform advocates at the White House on Friday, calling for criminal justice reform on the issue.
“No one should go to jail for smoking weed!” she said at the event with rapper Fat Joe and others.
However, marijuana reform supporters say Harris’ work on reform is hypocritical.
As San Francisco district attorney, she oversaw more than 1,900 convictions for marijuana use or possession, according to public records. Harris also opposed the legalization of recreational marijuana until she ran for California Senate in 2015.
“She has absolutely no moral authority to speak on this issue,” marijuana legal reform advocate Steve DeAngelo told DailyMail.com after Harris’ White House event.
“She has no right to talk about cannabis except to apologize for her hypocrisy.”
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a roundtable discussion on marijuana reform at the White House
Rapper Fat Joe joined Harris to talk about criminal justice reform on the issue of marijuana
Additionally, during her 2010 campaign for California Attorney General, Harris opposed a ballot proposition that would legalize marijuana, leading to a major defeat for the movement.
Advocates like DeAngelo understand why President Joe Biden and Harris are emphasizing this popular issue ahead of the 2024 election, but urged them to do something that would have a critical impact.
“They’re handing out cookie crumbs when they could actually be helping people in a very serious way,” Jason Ortiz, director of strategic initiatives for the Last Prisoner Project, told DailyMail.com.
Ortiz said that despite Biden’s 2022 federal pardon for thousands of marijuana convictions, “no cannabis prisoners” had actually been released from prison as a result of his action. (The list of pardons applied to people already released from prison.)
The Last Prisoner Project is advocating for Biden to use his clemency power to release 3,000 cannabis-related federal prisoners and plans to mobilize a protest outside the White House in April to raise awareness of the issue.
Ortiz described the White House event hosted by Harris as “a slap in the face” to advocates, although he appreciated her using her platform as vice president to raise the issue. But he called on Biden and Harris to do more.
He said an apology from Harris would go a long way, especially as someone who was part of the problem for so many years.
“His approach, his talking points and his comments on this issue ring a little hollow, especially to people who are still incarcerated and likely were incarcerated in California under his regime,” Ortiz said.
Proponents of legal reform also prefer to use the word “cannabis” when talking about marijuana use, using the scientific definition to describe the plant.
Flanked by American musician Fat Joe (left) and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (right), US Vice President Kamala Harris (center) speaks during a roundtable discussion on marijuana reform.
Steve DeAngelo is an advocate for cannabis legalization and criminal justice reform
DeAngelo described the Harris event as a “cynical and pathetic display of political hypocrisy.”
“Kamala Harris has been trying to play both sides of the fence on this issue for years and years,” he said.
During his re-election bid in 2014, Harris only laughed when reporters asked her if she supported legalizing marijuana.
And during her presidential campaign, Harris laughed during a 2019 speech. interview with The Breakfast Club by revealing his own marijuana use.
‘I have. And I inhaled. I inhaled,” she said, admitting to smoking “a joint” in college. ‘It was a long time ago, but yeah. I just broke the news!’